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If they wanted to focus on Himeko this arc, they started off damn well.
Iori seems to be pretty understanding regarding Inaba and Taichi. She didn't get jealous at all. I'm kinda hoping that trust won't come back to bite her.

What about Taichi's first impulse scene, "are you going to leave it like this"? Was he going to see Inaba or Iori? He was thinking about the Inaba situation before he acted and was conveniently stopped by Imouto and then Iori's call. I doubt this question will be answered by the anime, but was he actually going to go to Inaba's to straighten things out?

What about Taichi's first impulse scene, "are you going to leave it like this"? Was he going to see Inaba or Iori? He was thinking about the Inaba situation before he acted and was conveniently stopped by Imouto and then Iori's call. I doubt this question will be answered by the anime, but was he actually going to go to Inaba's to straighten things out?

Spoiler for Comparison to Novel regarding that scene:

It was stated that when he came to, he was ready to press the call button on Iori's phone number

I knew right away that Iori would see this as a scary but potentially valuable opportunity to find her true self, but I'm surprised she voiced this to Taichi in the first episode of the arc. As predictable as the "status quo" reset was, at least they gave a good reason for it. I'll allow it! *referee pose*

Inaba is killing me. If the desired result of her characterization is to fire up every protective instinct in my body, it's working. If she really is completely unwilling to fight for Taichi, then the best thing that could happen is for him to get with Iori as soon as possible so that she can start getting over him. Lord knows she's strong enough to do it, but if things keep getting dragged out then she won't get the closure she needs and it's just going to eat her alive. If we needed any more evidence that she's as self-sacrificing as Taichi, if not more so, just check her panic when she thought her indiscretion might be revealed specifically to Iori. Is she so afraid of looking like a threat to Iori that she's willing to adopt the humiliating excuse of "I was hot and he was there"?

Heartseed is infuriating. I don't care that he's "helping" them. This kind of emotional and social violation gets my goat.

Yui was taken into police custody after the CSI Tokyo team discovered that her shoe prints matched the indentations in the victims' testicles. Dammit Taichi; see now what your careless words have wrought? I suspect we're going to get a bit more insight into her and (finally) Aoki with this arc. It seems the perfect opportunity.

A lot has been said for this episode. For me, it’s funny that the person who consider it most important to maintain her image (Inaba) get to show the most humiliating desire (so far). Nice gimmick, and it seems that this arc is tailor-made for Inaba just like first arc is tailor-made for Iori, I mean look at those Endings!

As for Taichi, I’m looking forward to see more of his true desires. As for other, I might say...

For Iori: It’s gonna be a field day for her pursue of "true identity".

The dialogue in this episode toned down the Joss Whedon-esque quality that it's had in recent episodes, and I think it hit just the right balance between sophisticated and naturalistic. It was sophisticated enough to be interesting, but naturalistic enough to never feel overly long-winded. It was thought-provoking, and it also flowed very well.

Who's Joss Whedon and what's distinctive about his writing that makes it bad?

I was all over the wiki on the earlier episodes and it said that the whole novel revolved around them changing bodies. Turns out it's not that way! I thought that 8 novels of body swapping was... milking it.

It's actually 8 novels of Heartseed being a 1st class troll.

Inaban... Turns out my prediction of her being the "strongest" and the "weakest" was right. She is the strongest outside, but she's actually the weakest of them all.

And dat bra.

Actually was surprised that Iori didn't... react, at all; at Inaban telling her that she got on top of Taichi after seeing a pic that turned her on...

I mean, there's no double entendre. It's right there. "I got on taichi after seeing a hentai-ish pic... probably to do something, but I don't think I would have crossed any lines... probably" (remembers Taichi's hand on her -sizable- breast) Yeah...

Inaba is killing me. If the desired result of her characterization is to fire up every protective instinct in my body, it's working. If she really is completely unwilling to fight for Taichi, then the best thing that could happen is for him to get with Iori as soon as possible so that she can start getting over him. Lord knows she's strong enough to do it, but if things keep getting dragged out then she won't get the closure she needs and it's just going to eat her alive. If we needed any more evidence that she's as self-sacrificing as Taichi, if not more so, just check her panic when she thought her indiscretion might be revealed specifically to Iori. Is she so afraid of looking like a threat to Iori that she's willing to adopt the humiliating excuse of "I was hot and he was there"?

Yeah, I completely agree with you on Inaba. I honestly feel sorry for her. She either doesn't have it in her to compete against her good friend Iori for Taichi, or she's convinced that Taichi would reject her if forced to choose between her and Iori.

And I agree with you that the best thing Taichi could do for Inaba's sake would be to speed up his relationship with Iori so that Inaba can more quickly get over it. Alas, Heartseed's meddling has given Taichi and Iori a good reason to hold off on that, which is partly why...

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Heartseed is infuriating. I don't care that he's "helping" them. This kind of emotional and social violation gets my goat.

Yeah, I agree with you here too. Besides, Heartseed's meddling leaves significant damage in its wake, such as hospital stays from serious injuries and run-ins with the police. Then there's all the time and energy lost dealing with the problems that Heartseed presents to them - Time and energy that they could put towards doing better in school, or just having fun.

Heartseed might be "helping" them, but it comes at quite a cost. Whether or not it's worth it is debatable, imo.

Speaking of Taichi, he had some good moments. I like how even when his sister was teasing him mercilessly, he still found reason to go into "over-protective big brother" mode with her.

Personally, I found Taichi's little sister truly adorable. I'm relieved that she's casually teasing him about it rather than showing jealousy over it, if you catch my drift...

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Originally Posted by frivolity

Who's Joss Whedon and what's distinctive about his writing that makes it bad?

To be fair, a lot of people like Whedon's work. Personally, I find his dialogue to be a bit long-winded and overly self-aware (i.e. many of the characters he writes have this tendency to frequently talk about themselves in this self-analyzing way that I find a bit off-putting). He's pretty good at witty lines though.

And I hate it when people try to compare Kokoro Connect to that particular wreck of a story. I mean come on, it's not like we have some idiot swinging his gun out at every occasion or there are several girls who are heartbroken over having been used. This is a growth story, not some comedy.

I guess I'm the only one who really liked the new Ending theme. I mean, I like both and I'd rather not pick out which one's "better". It definitely doesn't have the epic "cut-in" like the first ED but this one breaths an entirely different feel to the series. It's refreshing, youthful, and hopeful. What's not to like about a theme full of positive energy, especially when under the heavy atmosphere that's coming for this arc? Then again I am biased, being LN reader, so I can obviously appreciate the theme with different perspectives.

Speaking of music, anyone else like that piano piece during Taichi x Iori's conversation scene near the end in the background? I've been liking it since it played in Episode 4.

I guess I'm the only one who really liked the new Ending theme. I mean, I like both and I'd rather not pick out which one's "better". It definitely doesn't have the epic "cut-in" like the first ED but this one breaths an entirely different feel to the series. It's refreshing, youthful, and hopeful. What's not to like about a theme full of positive energy, especially when under the heavy atmosphere that's coming for this arc? Then again I am biased, being LN reader, so I can obviously appreciate the theme with different perspectives.

I never did say I disliked the new ending, I just think the old one was better by a considerable margin. We've definitely been spoiled by a powerful ending, that's the problem.

I guess I'm the only one who really liked the new Ending theme. I mean, I like both and I'd rather not pick out which one's "better". It definitely doesn't have the epic "cut-in" like the first ED but this one breaths an entirely different feel to the series. It's refreshing, youthful, and hopeful. What's not to like about a theme full of positive energy, especially when under the heavy atmosphere that's coming for this arc? Then again I am biased, being LN reader, so I can obviously appreciate the theme with different perspectives.

Speaking of music, anyone else like that piano piece during Taichi x Iori's conversation scene near the end in the background? I've been liking it since it played in Episode 4.

Damn you teasing us with LN knowledge... "Heavy atmosphere"... Tch

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And I hate it when people try to compare Kokoro Connect to that particular wreck of a story. I mean come on, it's not like we have some idiot swinging his gun out at every occasion or there are several girls who are heartbroken over having been used. This is a growth story, not some comedy.

It's easy to say something in hindsight. No one that had not played the VN of School Days could have predicted the ending... Up until like episode 7 it seemed like a normal VN with a MC split between two girls.

Then it all degraded. Of course it's not going to end this way because there's like 6 more novels after this arc, which I believe shows that none of the characters suffers a nice disembowelment at the hands of a kitchen knife or a saw, but it's still fun to speculate about.

I love the ED. It's like..... It expresses who Inaba Himeko is. She's lonely in a snowy world. She knows she has friends. She knows she isn't alone. And eventually, her friends help her stand up and look into the sunshine. Everything can be summarized in the title: 「Cry out」

I guess I'm the only one who really liked the new Ending theme. I mean, I like both and I'd rather not pick out which one's "better". It definitely doesn't have the epic "cut-in" like the first ED but this one breaths an entirely different feel to the series. It's refreshing, youthful, and hopeful. What's not to like about a theme full of positive energy, especially when under the heavy atmosphere that's coming for this arc? Then again I am biased, being LN reader, so I can obviously appreciate the theme with different perspectives.

I love the new ED. You sum up its strengths really well.

The first ED was great for the first arc because its imagery fit the whole "minds/souls switching bodies" premise. But the visuals for the new ED is much more fitting with an unleashed Id premise (all the characters flying high together, "living life large", so to speak).

I honestly hope the ED keeps switching from one arc to the next so that it matches well with whatever the premise of the arc is (presuming there's a different "game" that Heartseed will be playing after this one).

I can't fuckin believe Heartseed/Balloon Vine is up to his shenanigans again, but at the same time, I'm not lol. Again, I'm surprised that Inaba did what she did, but at the same time, I'm not. I'm curious to see how far their desires will go. GOOD SHIT, SON

Who's Joss Whedon and what's distinctive about his writing that makes it bad?

In addition to what the above people have said, Whedon also has this bad tendency to write everybody as the same character (snarky badass) to the point that there's no variety amongst the cast and its nauseating. Granted, that's not one of the problems Kokoro Connect has. I also really hate when people try to copy him (the Uncharted team) because they amp up the annoyance like mad.

As for the episode itself, let's just say I wasn't kind to this episode on my Twitter. This is one of those shows where I like what it's trying to do, but I don't like the actual execution. The scene with the sign behind the lesbian girl was a good joke though.